Twitter Updates

April 14, 2017

gun sales still high in spite of what was previously reported

It wasn't too long ago that the media were reporting that gun sales fell off a cliff as soon as Donald Trump was elected president, i.e., as soon as it appeared that gun grabbing regulations became less likely.

But look at this: NICS Checks in the Trump Era: March 2017 Near Record. Applications to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System are used as an approximate measure of gun sales during the applicable period. And while the comparison of the March, 2017, numbers with previous March numbers may not mean much, it's interesting that the difference wasn't so great as to justify the panic drop in gun sellers' stock prices.

Sturm, Ruger & Company for example. The stock price bottomed out shortly after the November election but has moved up almost 20% off its low. Maybe that was a dead cat bounce. Or maybe the panic selling was overblown. I certainly don't know.